What Worked, What Didn’t:
Tier I Implementation at an Alternative School
Michelle Massar, Josh Kahn, and Jerin Kim
November 3rd, 2014
Purpose
• To discuss the successes and challenges of
implementing universal SWPBIS features in an
alternative setting
• To offer strategies for overcoming the unique
challenges of alternative educational settings
• To discuss adaptation principles to frame Year
1 implementation
Alternative Schools
“[The mainstream teachers] told me I wouldn’t graduate on time, and I thought I
couldn’t. Here, I feel limitless. I can do what I want and I will accomplish things.”
Alternative Schools: Setting
• Alternative schools are one type of restrictive
setting (along with residential and JJ settings).
• There are approximately 10,000 alternative
schools in the country (George, George, Kern,
& Fogt, 2013). 30 years ago there were 460
(Wells, 1993).
• Need is growing but exemplars are few and far
between
Alternative Schools: Students
• Students are typically placed in restrictive settings
because their needs cannot be met within a less
restrictive environment
• Students face trauma and challenges:
– Large proportions have experienced abuse, neglect,
homelessness, mental health issues, educational
disabilities, involvement with the child welfare system
– Likely have experienced school failure and spent a
considerable time outside of the instructional setting
(Lampron & Gonsoulin, 2013)
Alternative Settings: Best Practices
• Unique challenges in AE settings require
unique support structures
• Evidence-based practices for challenging
behaviors are not different for this population
• “What is unique about AE settings is not the
process, it is the intensity with which systemic
structures support effective teaming,
intervention, and evaluation” (Scott & Copper,
2013, p. 103).
AE and PBIS?
• Aren’t they all tier three?
NO! Research indicates that the
breakdown of student support needs
does not differ significantly based on
setting (Nelson, Sprague, & Martin,
2007)
The challenge to implementation of PBIS in AE settings is the
complexity of structure and coordination of systems
Highly heterogeneous population
Transitory population
High staff turnover
Wraparound services coordination
Implementation in an AE School
“Alternative schools make you aware that you are welcome; that you can have
trust in them, and that you’ll fit in among the other students. They don’t judge
you even if you came from the streets.”
Adaptation
Function of adapting PBIS
features to the contextual
features of the school
environment. Adaptation is
the process by which the
features of PBIS align with
the skills, resources,
administrative support, and
values of the local
environment (e.g., school
staff, students, families, and
community).
Case Study
• Accredited alternative middle and high school offering
education and vocational training for out-of-school
youth, ages 12 to 21.
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–
–
–
–
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Work readiness skills training
Basic computer skills instruction
Job search assistance and placement
Vocational training with academic credit
Work-based learning opportunities
Assistance with transportation, child care, and GED testing
fees
– Independent Living Skills Program for youth in foster care
Adoption Process: What We Did
• Started with ODR Data analysis from previous 2 yrs
• Generated possible recommendations
– Individual interventions (tier 2 or 3)
– Teacher PD
– More snacks
– Implementation of Tier 1
• Admin thought tier 1 was best overall option.
– Piecemeal vs. systemic
– Bigger investment up front but hopefully bigger and
sustainable benefits.
Adoption: What We Did
• HOWEVER, Needed major staff buy-in to implement
Tier 1
• Decided to present PBIS overview to the whole staff
in January; Staff to vote after presentation.
– Set a criteria of 80% approval rate to adopt
• Prior to presentation, we set up a “Gallery Walk”
(Kennedy, Mimmack, & Flannery, 2012) in staff lounge.
– Allows staff to view data on their own time and interpret
individually, in pairs, or as a group.
• At conclusion of presentation, staff voted 16-2 in
favor of adoption.
– With 5 volunteers to join the school’s PBIS team
Adoption Process: How It Went
• What worked
–
–
–
–
Gallery Walk
Data Analysis
Presentation to staff
Team Building (i.e.,
setting roles and
agreements)
• What didn’t
– Timing.
Recommendations for next time:
• Gallery Walk
• Full staff vote
• Too much time spaced out
between events
• Started PBIS
implementation in midFebruary
• Team Building took too
long.
Activity: Adoption
Time to think like a PBIS team!
Problem: A group of teachers have not bought into
implementing PBIS, although nearly 80% of your staff is on
board
Problem-solve: Determine ways to get the hesitant/resistant
teachers involved and implementing PBIS along with the rest of
the faculty.
Directions:
• Step 1: In table groups, discuss 3-5 possible reasons for the
teachers’ hesitation/resistance.
• Step 2: Generate 1-2 possible solutions.
• Step 3: Write the solutions on flip-chart paper for other
groups to see.
Expectations and Matrix: What We Did
• Coached PBIS team to create 3-5 short,
positively-stated school-wide expectations that
span all settings.
– Showed many examples from the internet (www.pbis.org)
– Hard to find negative examples but provided the best
learning opportunities for the team.
• PBIS team created Matrix to operationalize each
expectation for each relevant location.
The Matrix
Examples
Expectations and Matrix: How It Went
• What worked
– Positive and negative
examples
– Acquiring the positivelyoriented language
– Adapting to different
locations/settings
• Team appreciated the
flexibility
• What didn’t
– Getting caught in the
acronym trap
– Took too long
– kids find it “babyish”
– too limiting
– adapting to different
locations/settings
• Adapting for alternative
settings is challenging
– i.e. work sites, transition
activities
Recommendations
• Avoid getting caught in the acronym trap.
• Quicker pace
• Use as many negative examples as can be
found/crafted.
Activity: Expectations
Time to think like a PBIS team!
Problem: The students in your school tell teachers
that they are not going to follow “rules for babies”.
Problem-solve: Determine ways to get student buy-in
to the expectations and matrix.
Directions:
• Step 1: In table groups, discuss 3-5 possible reasons
for the students’ reaction.
• Step 2: Generate 1-2 possible solutions.
• Step 3: Write the solutions on flip-chart paper for
other groups to see.
Rewards: What We Did
• What reward systems does the school have?
– Five to six reward systems described in guidebook
– Identified the most high-frequency system
– Victory Points
 Criteria: successful academic performance
: good attendance
: expected behaviors
 Presentation
: teachers’ direct point assignment
: Record date/point/signature on the point sheet
: Students are expected to carry the point sheet
Rewards: What we did
Redesign the existing system
• Criteria: Points (unit) are rewarded to students contingent
on expected behaviors (BEAST), which is connected to the
intermittent rewards.
Other intermittent
and surprise events
are described in the
point-sheet.
• Presentation: teachers’ direct point-assignment
Rewards: How It Went
• What worked
• What didn’t
– Too emphasis on data
– Start with the existing
collection
system familiar to
– very expensive
students and teachers
– Still, need to evaluate
the practice (e.g.
– Align the reward system to
fidelity)
PBIS expectations
• More specific description
– Student survey
on how many points are
(reinforcer)
rewarded on each
expected behavior
– Add a new system
• Lack of dissemination plan
“Teacher reward system”
– Transition activities
Recommendations
 Data collection/management is not necessarily required for
reward otherwise your school have the efficient and cheap
system (e.g. electronic card system)
 Check the fidelity of the reward practice via teacher survey
 After the immediate system is secured, additional reward
systems can be added, in particular to maintain the
appropriate behaviors
 Share and Celebrate the good news with family and all
school community
Activity: Rewards
Time to think like a PBIS team!
Problem: Your school’s current student rewards are
too expensive which is unsustainable. There are no
rewards for teachers.
Problem-solve: Determine appropriate, inexpensive
reinforcers for both students and staff.
Directions:
• Step 1: In table groups, discuss 3-5 potential
rewards for staff and students.
• Step 2: Write the list on flip-chart paper for other
groups to see.
Consequences: What We Did
• PBIS team decided to identify and operationally
define problem behavior
– Team used definitions from Todd, Horner, and Tobin
(2006) and made small adjustments according to staff
input
• Defined minor (class managed) and major (office
managed) problem behaviors
• Determined steps for addressing each type of
behavior (flowchart)
• Developed continuum of function-based
consequences
Operational Definitions: Minors
Operational Definitions: Majors
Adapted Flowchart
• Determined
minors/majors
• Made adaptations for
the alternative setting
Consequences: How It Went
• What worked
– Defining problem
behaviors
– Explaining functionbased behavioral
consequences
– Establishing consistency
among staff
– Providing professional
development based on
staff needs and
knowledge
– Discussing alternatives
to suspension/removal
• What didn’t
– Disrespect and noncompliance
– Discipline versus treatment
– Utilizing an array of
alternatives to
suspension/removal
– Facilitating communication
across groups
Recommendations
• Preparing for “structured flexibility” (i.e., revisiting
the behavior plan)
• Planning for a variety of meaningful consequences
that do not reinforce the function of the behavior
Data-based Decision-making: What we Did
• PBIS team decided to build on existing system.
– Before adoption, team discussed student data (behavior,
attendance, academic achievement) at teacher team
meetings.
•
•
•
•
But did not communicate their work at whole staff meetings.
Haven’t changed much in the way team analyzes data yet.
Focusing on getting staff to recognize students and write ODRs.
Must build capacity for DBDM within the team.
– Data input routines, meeting discussion routines, data analysis,
• When crafting rewards system, team considered
how to track positive rewards, not just ODRs.
– Decided too labor-intensive to track; principal would
track informally by randomly asking students which
teachers had recognized their positive behaviors.
Data-based DM: How It Went
• What worked
– Standardizing data collection
procedures
• Standardizing the excel sheet
• Standardizing data input times
and procedures
• What didn’t
– Having data analysis
concentrated in one
person’s hands
• That person left
– Formally tracking
rewards data
Recommendations
•
•
•
•
Try to get plugged into SWIS?
Start with standardizing data input procedures
Then, build meeting discussion routines (TIPS)
Then, build capacity to interpret.
Year 1 Implementation
• Adopt and Adapt!
– Make the framework the most efficient and
appropriate for your staff and students
• Behavior contracts: Attendance versus Behavior
• Efficient data collection
• Collecting and using the data for decision
making (TIPS)
Using Staff and Student Feedback
• You can’t make it work for all if you do not get
their feedback.
• Using student feedback, especially at the high
school level, is one of the most effective ways
to gain insight for improving the interventions
in place.
So… Now What?
• Using the Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI) as a
measure of Tier I Implementation
– Based the action plan for the team off of sub-scale
score on implementation
• “It isn’t working” versus “It isn’t being
implemented with fidelity”
– How do we measure fidelity of implementation?
Resources and Links
• Operational definitions of problem behavior:
http://www.pbis.org/common/cms/files/NewTeam/Data/ReferralF
ormDefinitions.pdf
• Tiered Fidelity Inventory: COMING SOON TO PBISApps.org
• Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (OSEP Technical
Assistance Center):
http://www.pbis.org/
• Alternatives to Suspension (Peterson, 2005):
http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/182/over5.html
• Team-Initiated Problem Solving:
http://www.pbis.org/resource/942
• Free or Inexpensive Rewards for Individual Students and Staff:
http://www.wisconsinpbisnetwork.org/assets/files/resources/Free
%20or%20Inexpensive%20Rewards.pdf